Blockchain can be used to track donations of medical supplies in managing coronavirus
It can track and trace medical supplies to ensure accountability by the manufacturers
It’s applicable in Government, Finance, Insurance, Health, Manufacturing, Film, Education and other industries
NAIROBI, Kenya — The Africa Bank Summit 4.0 2021 where Mr Arunda will be a Panelist from 28-29 July 2021, profiles him as a fast-growing speaker on Fintech, Blockchain and other Distributed Ledger Technologies to audiences of industry experts, professionals and corporate executives.
He is also the immediate former Head of Education at Blockchain Association of Kenya, former Blockchain Research and Training Manager at Kwakoo Group, and a Member of Government Blockchain Association.
Mr Arunda is Africa’s first Blockchain published author of the book Understanding the Blockchain launched in 2018 at Strathmore University Business School in Nairobi and the latest, Blockchain: An Enterprise Perspective.
Some of the institutions he has consulted for include Institute of Developing – Japan External Trade Organizations (IDE-JETRO); Anjarwallah & Khanna – Africa Legal Network (ALN), and he also advises a Board of Directors of a Kenyan bank on Blockchain relevance.
He has been featured in mainstream media including BBC World News – In Business Africa, India’s The Economic Times, and in Kenya – CitizenTV, Daily Nation, Business Daily and BitcoinKE.
Mr Arunda recently spoke to SMART AFRICA [SA] Editor Elvis Mboya about his books, Blockchain’s application in modern industries and how best it can be used to solve current and future problems including Coronavirus vaccine logistics:
SA: Tell us about your first and second books.
The first book: Understanding the Blockchain: A simplified version for everyone, is an In-Depth overview of Blockchain and its use cases in Government, Finance, Insurance, Health, Manufacturing, Film, Education and other industries. The book simplifies Blockchain Technology in a way that is easy for people in other professions to understand it.
The second book: Blockchain: An Enterprise Perspective is a guide to implementing Blockchain and other Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) in government and enterprises.
For almost a decade, the cryptocurrency hype has overshadowed the many benefits of Blockchain technology in enterprises. Blockchain is praised for its infrastructure that uses distributed consensus protocol to ensure transparency in any transaction in any industry.
In this book, I have explained why Enterprise Blockchain is applicable in real-life business world and discusses existing examples of companies using Blockchain.
In a step-by-step guide, he explains how a company executive or a government agent can successfully adopt Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) to create new streams of income, triple-cut operational costs, and tremendously increase operational efficiency and transparency.
The need for publishing a second book.
The first book was meant to simplify the complex technology and help people especially non-techies understand Blockchain away from the popularly hyped Cryptocurrencies.
This second book is meant to help entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and government agents to understand whether or not Blockchain is necessary for them and guide them to implement it in their institutions.
Kenya’s Government AI Blockchain Task-force report was a reflection of what I covered in my book. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Task-force borrowed a leaf from the book.
How would you measure the impact of your first book?
The book has increased Blockchain education as indicated by the several blog-posts that appear online when you google ‘Benjamin Arunda’.
What has changed in the sector since you published the first book?
There is more interest in Blockchain since the book was launched. I have trained more people and received more invitations to train after the launch.
The Kenyan government [Artificial Intelligence] AI and Blockchain Task-force led by Prof. Bitange Ndemo [Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Nairobi’s Business School], released a report on Blockchain use in Kenya; the report was a reflection of what I covered in my book, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Task-force borrowed a leaf from the book.
At what level would you rate the Blockchain sub-sector in Kenya, compared to its competitors, especially in sub-Sahara Africa?
Kenya has tremendously improved in Blockchain adoption over the past one year, but its growth is more on Cryptocurrencies as opposed to Enterprise Blockchain.
Uganda has taken greater strides thanks to Uganda Blockchain Association.
But generally Kenya is in top five in terms of adoption friendly-environment in Africa
I have full capacity through partnerships to provide end to end solutions in any industry. That means we are able to build any Blockchain solution for a cost ranging from USD$5000 to USD$250,000 depending on the complexity of the Blockchain solution.
How would you gauge the government’s commitment, in terms of the product’s uptake, and the future of block-chain in Kenya?
The government seems to be waiting for the innovation to be clearer and first be taken up in the private sector, although they already expressed interest when the Blockchain taskforce was appointed.
There hasn’t been any activity on the implementation of the Taskforce report since its release [in 2019].
What exactly are the underlying challenges and how best can they be resolved?
Education needs to lead the way. Scams and too much crypto activities have blinded the corporate executives and governments making them shy away from the Blockchain discussions.
High rate of unemployment has made the general public keener to crypto activities and get-rich quick crypto Ponzi schemes which is deepening the bad reputation of Blockchain.
Most people still think Blockchain and Bitcoin are synonymous thus can easily appreciate the benefits of Blockchain.
Companies and governments in Africa are beginning to give attention to the Blockchain conversations.
Regulators such as Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority [CMA] are more involved in curbing scam crypto activities such as Nurucoin and Kenicoin
More people are interested in learning Blockchain fundamentals and even learn to develop Blockchain and smart contracts, which is a sign of a growing industry.
What’s your take on President Uhuru Kenyatta’s AI Blockchain task-force led by Prof Ndemo?
The task-force do not have clear goals in aiding Blockchain implementation in Kenya.
It is also not sufficiently staffed with the right skilled personnel to drive the adoption.
The Ministry of ICT should review the mandate of the task-force and ensure that it is properly staffed and funded to carry out that mandate.
The task-force can help Kenya lead the way in Blockchain adoption but is not well staffed and perhaps have no progressive budget at all.
Apart from writing books, do you feel sufficiently equipped to adequately drive the Blockchain agenda in Kenya, and elsewhere in the continent?
I run a Blockchain consulting firm which offers training, consultancy and development of Blockchain solutions; and have consulted for companies such as Anjarwallah & Khanna (largest law firm in East Africa), IDE-JETRO (a non-government organization) and a local bank (requests anonymity) among others.
I have full capacity through partnerships to provide end to end solutions in any industry. That means we are able to build any Blockchain solution for a cost ranging from USD$5000 to USD$250,000 depending on the complexity of the Blockchain solution.
Blockchain technology adoption will skyrocket in the next two to five years as the technology becomes clearer to the corporate market.
How can the Blockchain be applied to resolve thorny problems around Coronavirus pandemic?
The global COVID-19 pandemic has crippled businesses and governments across the world, and made distrust and suspicion the new normal in society.
Social distancing and hygiene have been the key focus in preventing the spread of the diseases, but it all plays out as a game of data.
This is where technology becomes useful. China, Israel and Singapore have been reported to be using surveillance technology to track down possible coronavirus victims and test them. Blockchain can be useful too.
Blockchain technology is known to introduce immutability in data management and transparency in transactions.
Containing coronavirus boils down to a question of data management. Epidemiologists should have access to high quality data on coronavirus and its patients across different demographics for them to model the virus and advise governments more accurately.
With use of data obtained from external oracles such as decentralized surveillance systems, Blockchain can be used to ensure quality and security in sharing the data on temperature levels of potential victims, progress of recovered patients, and rate of the disease spread across the world, and actual figures of positive cases and deaths.
Blockchain can be used to track donations of medical supplies in managing coronavirus. The rage and rumor on social media about fake or coronavirus-infected face masks have been so outrageous.
Blockchain can be used to track and trace medical supplies to ensure accountability by the manufacturers. Hyperchain, a Blockchain startup in Hangzhou, China, has created a donations-tracking solution that makes it possible for donors to follow and ensure that their donations are used for most urgent needs.
Blockchain can also be used to fast-track insurance claims for coronavirus cases. Xiang Hu Bao, owned by Ant Financial, is a Blockchain-based platform for claim-sharing and is now being used to clear coronavirus claims and help reduce paperwork and increase transparency. The project has processed up-to 25,000 claims through Blockchain.
Please, take us through your futuristic thoughts on Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, AI and technology peak in Africa: will and capacity to drive growth.
Blockchain technology adoption will skyrocket in the next two to five years as the technology becomes clearer to the corporate market.
AI and Blockchain will be used hand in hand to develop superior solutions in Finance especially in KYC and AML; in governments for identity in immigration, and other industries.
Cryptocurrency is still going to experience mixed reactions and scams as more people still do not understand them yet want to make instant cash using them.
We expect to see more regulator involvement in protecting consumers from crypto scams.
The capacity is slowly developing as shown by the sharp rise in admissions in programming and Blockchain technology schools such as Moringa School, BitHub Africa and Cryptocurrency Academy.
We expect to see growth in the industry over the next two years as more Venture capitalist invest in Blockchain startups.
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